Mr CM, learn something
from Naidu
By Batuk Vora
Gujarat
and, for that matter, most of India is still ruled by those obsolete
British laws called the Revenue Code and Manual for Famine-affected
Areas. Very little has changed in these laws despite many changes in
the rural economy of free India - thanks to our bureaucrats who have
now stopped following the good old practice of regular visits to villages
to check out the facts by themselves. Instead, they rely on 'remote
control', just like our elected politicians.
Take the example of Amreli
district. Most parts of this hapless district are still reeling under
water scarcity and employment. But the bosses at Gandhinagar and the
district collector have patted themselves on their backs and stopped
all the relief works on the basis of some make-believe rainfall figures
(Rajula and Jafarabad taluka's 55 villages, out of the total 136, had
two to three inches of rainfall only), thus rendering thousands
of relief workers jobless and helpless. The other fallout is non-payment
of crop failure insurance amount.
Only those who visit these
villages, would realise these facts. Former two-term MLA Khodidas Thakker
is one of them.
He writes to me that all
the villages of the district were declared scarcity-hit this year, unlike
last year when only 48 villages of Lathi-Liliya taluka were officially
termed scarcity-hit. But the farmers have not been paid any paisa for
crop failure insurance, just because the revenue officials declared
wrong figures of rainfall.
There was not enough rain
in the district to begin the sowing operations. Whatever was sown, got
burnt down due to failure of second rainfall.
The department declared
Liliya taluka as having received five inches of rainfall and this would
qualify it, in official jargon, only for 50 per cent of scarcity. This
was worth hardly any relief. As a result, all the relief works were
stopped, leaving thousands of landless poor and small farmers jobless,
penniless and even without enough drinking water. Revenue officials
could simply not notice the real condition.
Similarly, Amreli is also
the victim of poor education infrastructure. A recent report in Amreli
Sarnachar weekly mentions that there are 723 rural schools in the
district and 6,500 employees, but there are only 11 inspectors out of
stipulated 32.
Only six schools can boast
of good building and basic facilities like water and sanitation. The
rest of the schools suffer from one or the other deficiency. Interestingly,
most of the computers gifted by the government to schools remain locked
inside rooms.
The rural folk have innumerable
complaints against the electricity board too, which considers power
consumption by village panchayats as an industry consumption and collects
exorbitant charges.
I have a suggestion here
for the revenue minister and chief minister too. They must check up
everyday what their 26 district collectors are doing and how many days
did they visit the villages.
This can be easily done
on their computers and through video-conferencing.
Rainfall figures should
be double-checked by scientific methods. Talati-mantri cadres must be
compelled to live in their designated villages, at least for all the
working days.
This is a simple question
of grassroots governance. The BJP promised a different type of governance,
but people fail to see it so far. Computers mostly rest on the ministers'
desks and they hardly use the internet or e-mail facility. Video-conferencing.
too, remains a show inside the Sachivalaya complex.
Ask Chandrababu Naidu -
he wakes up his collectors at 4 am and checks out details of projects
under construction and schemes under implementation. He asks them when
would they visit particular villages. And the results are there for
all to see!
